Thanks again for your effort to help me. The last run reducing the image size using the exclude file was successful I think. I have an image of 4gb which I am burning to DVD as I am writing this. If the DVD boots and I can install the system I am where I want to be and will probably not pursue the issue any more. However, you are more than welcome to have the error log but I am afraid I didn't save the previous ones thus you'll only have the one from the 4gb image
Edit: the live DVD works fine on another system. Thus installing would be possible. I think I have achieved what I wanted, thanks for your help